David Stone (1) (1946–)

Audio CD’s of David Stone’s Echelon Vendetta have been my driving companion for the past few weeks. It’s my first experience with Stone, and I came upon the audio book by chance rather than plan. Based on what I’ve heard, Stone is one of the most impressive new (to me) writing talents I’ve encountered in the last decade. His descriptive passages are superbly lyrical. His characters are well developed, quirky but rarely over the top. His dialogue reminded me of Hammett and Chandler show more (no, people don’t really talk like that, but we wish that they did). All of this is played out in plot studded with incredible gore and gruesome crime. I could have done without some of the blood-spatter, but the psycho-thriller genre now seems to have that degree of nastiness as a norm. The book is performed by Firdous Bamji, who is outstanding. I’ve already ordered Stone’s sequel and hope he kept up this high standard. show less

Most books I get free off the internet are worth about what I paid for them, so my expectations were not high coming into this. I expected it to be another generic thriller, just something to pass the time. I was pleasantly mistaken. I liked the characters, no matter how despicable. The scenery was described in wonderful detail without getting long-winded, and the action was well paced. I think my favorite part was the snarky ghost (or maybe he was just a hallucination) who haunted the main show more character as he attempted to solve the ghost's murder. There was a good balance between humor and drama. I read in a review somewhere to remember David Stone's name because he will be known for excellent thrillers. If this book is any indication of his future work, I think that's a definite possibility. show less

After reading David Stone’s first Micah Dalton thriller, The Echelon Vendetta, I was eager to read The Orpheus Deception, the second in the series. Orpheus starts almost precisely where Echelon ends, with a few new characters and, of course, a new threat to the Western World. Both have constant danger, sexy women, sadistic bad guys, and lots of testosterone. But while Echelon had a mysterious bad guy who made you wonder who, how and why, Orpheus is plotted more like an Ian Flemming novel show more from the Sixties – you know who the bad guys are, what they’re up to, and why just doesn’t seem to matter much. It’s a page turner, all right, an airplane read, but not a worthy successor.

In the absence of a first-rate plot, Stone’s shortcomings are more apparent. He’s still a first-rate writer of descriptive “scene-setters” and his dialogue isn’t bad, but some of the gore seems both superfluous and downright sick. Is he writing to appeal to our latent sadism, or is he a sadist himself, who enjoys writing about torture and disembowelment? This volume also abounds in racism, homophobia, snide remarks about liberals and “hippies” and xenophobia. I’ve got to think that it’s more than the characters speaking these words.

Echelon was good. Orpheus isn’t, and I won’t sample Mr. Stone’s output again. show less

I've come to really like David Stone's writing style. He is both a wit and flair, maybe even a sence of style to his writing. Add to that a unique protagonist in Micah Dalton and Stone's books have become some of my recent favorites.

I was really, really enjoying The Venetian Judgment. Dalton was his up to usual quirky and violent behavior and the supporting characters were mostly interesting (I want more of Mandy!). I was having a jolly time with the story when ... bam! ... the book ended. show more It was as if Stone had suddenly gotten bored with his story or didn't quite know how to get from point B to point C, so he had the characters take note of where they were in the plot and then followed with a semi-extended epilogue. Huh? There was a lot more story to tell (and a lot more bad guys for Dalton to tackle). Perhaps that will be the subject of the next book, but I don't think it was fair for Stone to simply wrap up the story the way he did.

The book would have received 4 or even 4 1/2 stars had the story been teased out through its natural conclusion. Oh, well. Maybe there will be a director's cut when the DVD is relea ... oops ... I guess not. show less